Twinsburg-based K&M International Inc. has come a long way in its 25 years in the nature-themed toy business. With its 5-year-old line of plush hanging monkey toys — one of its best-sellers worldwide — and the success of its Wild Republic division, the company has acquired several licensing partnerships that take its products to a higher level.
Focusing on education through recreation, K&M launched a line of plush birds implanted with sound chips that played a generic bird call.
“The birds had been selling in the market for at least six months before (the National Audubon Society) saw them and got interested in licensing them,” says Manjit Dhillon, director of marketing for Wild Republic. “They approached us in the summer of 2001 with a proposal, and from there on, the line just grew wings.”
Audubon suggested K&M contact the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y., about authentic bird calls, and the generic calls in the toy birds were replaced with actual bird songs recorded by Cornell. The Audubon Birds have earned a following among children who collect them and adult birdwatchers who use the authentic sounds to attract birds to their backyards.
“Once we partnered, we just went on creating more and more birds,” says Dhillon. ” … In terms of developing new birds, it’s Audubon, Cornell and K&M; the three of us sit down and discuss what’s out in the market and what is selling.”
The Audubon Birds also are licensed in the United Kingdom with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
“It’s very educational, and we’ve even had teachers buying the birds from us because they use it as an educational tool in the classroom,” Dhillon says. “That’s how we try to integrate the fun values of a toy and bring education into it.”
The company recently signed an international licensing agreement with the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London for its new Dinosauria line, which presents dinosaur species from different continents in their truest form as reflected by the latest research.
“NHM has worked with us to ensure that they are well-represented scientifically and factually,” Dhillon says. “NHM is well-respected. They are known for their dinosaur exhibits worldwide, so to say this is an NHM-licensed line is very prestigious.”
K&M also has a long-running partnership with the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) that began in 1997. The AZA called upon manufacturers for a bid for its plush business, and K&M won because its plush toys represented animals in the most realistic way.
“Our partnerships, especially with Audubon and Cornell, have not only given us enormous visibility, it has also resulted in tremendous sales because of the solidity of the program, good word-of-mouth in the industry — inviting other such proposals — and given the respective product lines a lot of credibility,” she says.
Although many companies have approached K&M about forming partnerships, Dhillon says the company has strict partnership criteria.
“Does the licensor involved bring a true sense of integrity to our company with respect to the products or services they wish to market?” she says. “Does the mission of the licensor involved tie in with our beliefs and values?”
In the United States, K&M products are sold in more than 500 zoos, museums and aquariums and in more than 10,000 specialty toy, gift and nature stores. The company has more 90 employees in the United States and 500 employees worldwide.
“This is a matter of pride for us. It’s an honor that these organizations respect our work,” Dhillon says. “They see value in what we’ve done, and they actually approached us to build a strong partnership. We have a very good relationship with all of our licensing partners.” HOW TO REACH: K&M International Inc., (330) 425-2550 or (800) 800-9678, www.kmtoys.com or www.wildrepublic.com
Web of intrigue
Developed by an outside firm and directed in-house, the Web site of Wild Republic has animal sounds, games and kid appeal. Manjit Dhillon, K&M’s marketing director, says successful Web sites reflect a company’s personality and bring it closer to the consumer.
“It’s much easier to reach the kids through Web sites than it is to reach them through advertising,” Dhillon says. “This is one way you can directly reach out to your target user — not to your target buyer, the buyer would be a parent — but the target user is a child.”
Dhillon shares three essentials that turn Web sites into powerful marketing tools.
* Focus on the core business. “You can communicate that through your Web site so your site has a very cohesive look about it, which gets translated as a brand personality into the consumer’s hands,” Dhillon says.
* Make a plan for the site. Will it feature products? Change your brand perception? Be used solely for business? “Our focus is … reaching out to the child and trying to have the kid interact with our brand as much as possible and want more, which is why we have things like games, cartoons and some educational stuff like the Audubon Birds,” Dhillon says. “Focusing on the purpose of the Web site is very important; otherwise, it can be all over the place.”
* Identify a user age range. Originally designed for young children, Wild Republic’s site now entertains older kids. “If an older brother visits the Wild Republic Web site and does fun things, then (the younger child) wants to visit that Web site also,” Dhillon says.
